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Oil Companies in North Dakota Fail to Report Almost 300 Oil Spills Since 2012

According
to the Associated Press, the nation’s second largest oil-producing
state, North Dakota, failed to inform the public of almost 300 oil
pipeline spills in the last two years.

Even though many of the spills were small, “[t]he public really should know about these,” Don Morrison, the director of the Dakota Resource Council,
told the AP.

“If there is a spill, sometimes a landowner may not even
know about it. And if they do, people think it’s an isolated incident
that’s only happening to them.”

Reporting such spills is significant, because even a barrel of oil
could ruin water supplies, which would ruin countless acres of arable
soil.

The
director of the Department of Mineral Resources, Lynn Helms, told the
Associated Press that companies are worried about “over-reporting”
spills. The state is trying to strike a balance so that “the public is
aware of what’s happening, but not overwhelmed by little incidents.”

One wheat farmer told the AP that he’s in favor of receiving
information about every incident, since his livelihood depends on his
land. He’s worried because the policy at the moment is “[w]hat you don’t
know, nobody’s going to tell you.”

“It would tell me if there is enough oversight and why these
accidents happen and if they could have been avoided,” he said. “Right
now, you don’t know if there is a spill unless you find it yourself.”

Earlier this month, one of Kuster’s neighbors did just that, but
North Dakota officials never informed him why truckloads of oil-stricken
dirt were being removed from his neighbor’s farm.

“We have no idea how big the spill is and why it happened,” he said.
“I’d try to get more information from the state but I’m too busy getting
my harvest in.”